Three Windhoek properties linked to a Zimbabwean banker and former minority shareholder in the liquidated Namibian Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Bank, Enock Kamushinda, will be auctioned tomorrow.
This comes after he failed to pay back N$140 million stolen from the now defunct bank.
The auction was confirmed by lawyer Corlia Maritz who represented the SME Bank liquidators Bruni and McLaren.
In January 2021, the liquidators reached a settlement agreement with Kamushinda, requiring him to repay N$140 million together with an interest rate of 20% per annum, calculated from 26 March 2021 to date of final payment.
The N$140 million is part of the N$247 million allegedly siphoned from the bank.
The agreement was formalised as a High Court order on 25 January 2021.
However, due to non-payment, the liquidators obtained a writ of execution to seize and auction Kamushinda’s assets.
“Due to non-payment, the liquidators obtained a writ of execution to attach movable assets belonging to Enock Kamushinda in respect of which the shareholding and members interest held by Enock Kamushinda in and to three companies were attached,” Maritz says.
She explains that the attached assets include shareholding and membership interests in three companies that each own immovable property.
Maritz says one property is located at Eros and two at Klein Kuppe.
The properties are owned by Kamushinda’s companies, Harrogate Investments, Windhoek Golf Estate Number Thirty Seven CC and Monsoon Investments CC.
Kamushinda, who was also former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s personal banker, only paid back N$3 million and questioned the validity of a N$140-million settlement agreement with the bank’s liquidators at the time.
He claims that he signed it because he feared going to jail, according to documents from the High Court of Zimbabwe.
Kamushinda claims he was threatened with arrest and deportation to coerce him into signing the agreement.
He has been named by the liquidators as the mastermind behind the looting of at least N$247 million from SME Bank between December 2013 and December 2016.
Emails and court documents indicate that Kamushinda’s actions contradict his claims.
The settlement negotiations were initiated by Kamushinda himself, through his former lawyer Francois Bangamwabo.
The agreement was signed in Harare three years after Kamushinda left Namibia.
It was signed by Kamushinda, former SME Bank chief executive Tawanda Mumvuma and Chiedza Goromonzi, a former administrative assistant in the finance department.
NEGOTIATIONS
Kamushinda, through Bangamwabo, on 3 November 2020 initiated a settlement agreement of N$120 million to be paid in full “to settle this matter once and for all so as to put an end to the ongoing litigation”.
The amount was to be paid in one instalment within 30 days of signing the settlement agreement.
This offer was rejected by the SME liquidators as they deemed it too low.
On 9 November 2020, Kamushinda’s lawyer made an offer of N$130 million payable within 60 days after the signing of the agreement.
As part of the agreement, Kamushinda wanted the liquidators to abandon the case.
The case is against Kamushinda and other defendants for an amount of more than N$247 million which was looted from SME Bank.
At the time, Kamushinda further signed a settlement agreement on behalf of his Namibian companies, Crown Finance Corporation and Heritage Investments Holdings.
A N$1-million payment was made by Kamushinda’s lawyer on 26 March 2021. Another payment of N$2 million was made on 10 June 2021.
But then the payments stopped.
“Following the settlement agreement, Covid-19 disrupted the conduct of business in Zimbabwe, which greatly affected their operations. This was coupled with numerous lockdowns with varying levels,” said Kamushinda’s former-lawyer.
He said the resurgence of more virulent and deadly Covid-19 strains and the reduction of working hours of his clients’ operating business negatively impacted their business.
Kamushinda, Mumvuma and Goromonzi, through their former lawyer, then made a proposal to settle the amount within 120 days as Covid-19 restrictions were being lifted.
“This attempt by Kamushinda to now avoid the consequences of him having signed the settlement agreement constitutes parol evidence,” Bruni says.
Bangamwabo last year said he was no longer Kamushinda’s lawyer. “He fired me. It has been about four years now. He has moved on and I have moved on.”
The liquidators say approximately N$20.8 million was transferred from the SME Bank into the trust account of a Johannesburg law firm called Paul Casasola and Associates between 2014 and 2015.
The law firm is owned by Mugabe’s pilot and confidant, Robert Mhlanga. Mhlanga’s then lawyer, Paul Casasola, received N$2 million of the stolen funds.
The Namibian has learnt that Mhlanga quickly settled with Namibian liquidators when they pursued him in South Africa.
Though he repaid N$18.8 million, this case provided further insight into how politically connected individuals exploited a bank meant to support small businesses in Namibia.
Casasola told The Namibian last year that they were not aware that the money was stolen from Namibia.
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